A day after being released from a Florida jail following his notorious courtroom butt-slap, Chad Johnson told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the weeklong jailing taught him to finally “slow down,” and he said that he wanted to play in the NFL again.

“I think everybody deserves a second chance," he told Robin Roberts on Tuesday morning. “People will say I might not deserve it. But I would like to finish my career off the right way. I don’t want the last thing to be remembered about Chad was, he was cut from the Dolphins for an incident he had with his wife."

Broward County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen McHugh released Johnson on Monday after serving seven days of her original 30-day sentence, but also sentenced him to additional community service, ordered counseling and extended his probation on his 2012 domestic violence conviction by three months. Johnson was grateful Tuesday.

“I think Judge McHugh has been able to do something that many people have tried to get me to do for a long time — slow down," Johnson said. “Slow down, just in life in general, slow down, think about what you’re gonna do. And she was able to do that, maybe not in the best circumstances if you view it from the outside.

“But I see being able to sit down and look at life going forward from this point on — it’s probably one of the best things that could’ve happened to me."

Johnson was also contrite about the actions (striking his then-wife, Evelyn Lozada) that landed him on probation, and then in the courtroom for violating his probation. “I felt that it was right of her to sentence me to the 30 days,’’ he said of the judge. “She had given me a gift before and there was no reason to treat me differently that anyone else in that situation, because if anyone else had been in that situation they would’ve done 30 days as well.’’

Of the slap on the rear end of his attorney, Adam Swickle (who accompanied him on the Good Morning America interview) Johnson said, "That’s the way I’ve always interacted throughout life in general. I know there’s a certain thing called courtroom etiquette, which I never really had been a part of the court system."

Johnson, 35, has not played a regular-season game since the New England Patriots released him after the 2011 season; Miami released him during training camp in 2012 after his arrest. He said he is healthy and can still help a team, and has “learned his lesson, especially after the last seven days.

“Me being Chad made the judge think I wasn’t being serious about the situation, but trust me, I understand exactly what I did,’’ he said. “And I lost two of the things I love the most ... football and my beautiful, and I did say beautiful, ex-wife.’’